Velociraptor
Velociraptor 'was a turkey-sized theropod that hunted in packs. It lived in Mongolia 85,000,000-70,000,000 BCE, and was one of the smartest dinosaurs ever. Its main food source would have been animals like Protoceratops. There is an absolutely stunning Palaeontological find from 1971 of a ''Velociraptor mongoliensis, wrapped in mortal combat with a Protoceratops, both biting and slashing at each other, and both entombed within a sand dune as it swallowed them up, alive, during either a flash-flood or sandstorm. Palaeontologists can actually see the killing claw in suspended animation; quite simply it is an impossible find, billions to one odds, find with great fortune, a 'holy grail' of Palaeontology on par with the best Tyrannosaurus rex find/specimen, Sue. Velociraptor means "s''wift seizer".'' 'The latin word ''velox meaning 'swift' and rapere meaning 'to seize'. Jurassic Park hysteria has wrongly caused many millions of people to become familiar with the name 'Velociraptor'. However, it is interesting to understand that for one, the general public were largely unaware of this Theropod Dinosaur, and that for two the fame itself is rather undeserved. In truth, Spielberg wanted the name Velociraptor - not the real animal, which wasf ar smaller than the vicious villains of his blockbuster. He transplanted the name of Velociraptor, onto the body of Deinonychus; the far larger cousin of Velociraptor that lived some 50 million years earlier than it (Dromaeosaurs seem to have got smaller over their evolution in general numbers, with the gigantic Utahraptor being one of the oldest but the single largest) Deinonychus was truly the size of the killers in the films, but Spielberg preferred the catchier name (and he was right about that, as we as know the name Velociraptor is household for some reason) "Velociraptor", doubtless for dramatic and commercial effect. Even so, the turkey sized Velociraptor was a deadly killer in its own right, especially as it formed marauding packs that could tackle much larger prey than itself - still, the 'real' Velociraptor, wasn't quite as nasty as many people may think - being far smaller, feathered (at least on it's arms), and, in packs, rarely taking on prey larger than sheep. Appearance In Jurassic Park, the Deinonychus (identified as Velociraptor) was 1.80 meters tall and 4.00 meters long. They were featherless and gray, the shape of the snout was rounded and the claw was used to disembowel. Deinonychus was said to be capable of reaching Cheetah-like speeds of 100 km/h. However, in the movies, it never ran faster than 70 km/h. In Chased By Dinosaurs, Velociraptor was eggnog colored, with green stripes on the back and they were featherless. They were very capable of killing with their claws. They were said to reach speeds up to 56 km/h. In Dinosaur Planet, they were covered in white feathers and had a crest of feathers on their head; they were blue or white. They were slightly larger than the real animal–7 feet long and 3 feet high at the head. The truth is that Velociraptor was 6 feet long and 2 feet high at the head. Their claw can pierce flesh but not disembowel it. Nobody knows what they looked like but it's assumed that they probably looked like the Velociraptors in Dinosaur Planet. Claws & Teeth One familiar feature is Velociraptor has razor-sharp claws on their hands and feet. The largest of the claws is a 2-inch claw on both feet. The claw can pierce flesh but not disembowel it. In order to disembowel, the underside of the claw would have to be razor-sharp edged like a steak knife. The underside of the claw is too smooth to allow it to disembowel. The Velociraptor would kill its victims by stabbing the throat area and/or paralyze the prey by jumping on them.. The bite of the raptor would, of course, crunch a bone in half in order to bite the ankles like a wolf to wear down large prey. Their curved-back razor-sharp teeth suggest that this animal was a carnivore. It was a ruthless killer with a bite force of 1,000 lb per sq in. Velociraptor could prey on Protoceratops, fish, Prenocephale, Oviraptor, even other Velociraptors. Walking With Dinosaurs ﻿While Velociraptor sadly didn't appear in the main series, its close relative Dromaeosaurus did. Specials ﻿Velociraptor featured in 'The Giant Claw', the second episode of Chased By Dinosaurs. Except for not having feathers, Velociraptor looked like what they did in real life. In this, it is seen hunting Protoceratops, and generally being a stealthy pack hunting menace to Nigel Marvin and his team, eventually chasing them through the forests by the lakeside. Nigel Marven uses a bicycle horn to confuse and startle them into leaving them alone and going away, after they manage to climb onto high level fallen trees. Trivia In Primeval, a Velociraptor chick came out of an anomaly at the airport in 3.4. The Evening crew was looking at the chick before Nigel gets bitten. The Velociraptor bites Nigel Marven on the finger and it ran back to its era. A Giganotosaurus pops his head out of the anomaly and swallows Nigel whole. Its version resembles the baby Dromaeosaurus from 2.1. Velociraptor was also featured in a novel of Primeval called Fire and Water. Velociraptor's last name, mongoliensis, is the same last name for Andrewsarchus. Evidence for feathers on Velociraptor has been found in 2007. Extinction Velociraptor probably became extinct from climate change 70,000,000 BCE. The lush rainforests and jungles disappeared and turned to desert. The prey's food source disappeared too and they were starved to extinction. The carnivores, like raptors, lost their source of food. If raptors didn't starve to extinction, then they would've died from the punch of the climate change. As a result, Velociraptor's habitat was obliterated. Millions of years before, a male raptor attacked a bull Protoceratops by stabbing the throat with his claw and curved his neck to pull the prey towards him. Protoceratops curved her spine to pull away and clamped her jaws around his arm. A mudslide destroyed them both. In 1971, their fossil remains were discovered by paleontologists and became the most famous Velociraptor fossil ever discovered. Category:Dinosaurs Category:Carnivores Category:Theropods Category:Reptiles Category:Dromaeosaurid Category:Saurischia Category:Archosauria Category:Archosauriformes Category:Cretaceous Period Category:Mesozoic Era Category:Phanerozoic Eon Category:Walking with Dinosaurs Specials Category:Dinosaur Planet Category:chased by dinosaurs Category:Primeval Category:Theropoda Category:Vertebrates Category:Reptilomorphs Category:Asian reptiles Category:Villains